What’s Charlie Ergen’s next move now that he has officially dropped out of the race for Sprint? (Denver Post file)

Douglas County-based Dish Network on Friday “decided to abandon its efforts to acquire Sprint Nextel,” a day after the nation’s No. 2 satellite-TV company was outbid in a separate deal for mobile network operator Clearwire.

The disclosure was made in regulatory filing, with Dish stating that, as a result of the move, its subsidiary will redeem $2.6 billion worth of notes.

With Dish officially out of the way, Japanese telecom giant SoftBank now appears to have a clear path to acquire Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint for $21.6 billion.

What’s next for Dish?

Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said in a research note Thursday before Dish formally dropped out of the Sprint race that a likely scenario includes a sale of Dish.

This file picture taken on October 15, 2012, shows president of Japan’s mobile carrier Softbank Masayoshi Son speaking at a news conference announcing Softbank will acquire U.S. based Sprint Nextel, in Tokyo. (Yoshikazu Tsunoyoshikazu, AFP via Getty Images)

Sprint Nextel’s board of directors on Monday effectively rejected Dish Network’s $25.5 billion buyout offer and announced that SoftBank has upped its bid for the wireless carrier by $1.5 billion.

Tokyo-based SoftBank raised its offer to $21.6 billion and amended terms of the deal to bolster the cash portion of the proposed merger by $4.5 billion to $16.6 billion.

After taking a couple of shots on the chin from SoftBank president Masayoshi Son this week, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen fired back Wednesday.

In an interview with USA Today, Ergen reiterates his belief that Dish’s $25.5 billion offer for Sprint Nextel is better than SoftBank’s $20 billion proposal to acquire 70 percent of the wireless carrier, despite Son picking apart that claim during a presentation on Tuesday.

“We’re offering a higher price. That’s just math,” Ergen told USA Today. “And we are an American company and the modernization of Sprint’s network will have to be done from the U.S. You have to climb the towers here and you’ll have to have U.S. employees who speak English. It’s easier to manage it from Kansas City and Denver than Tokyo. It doesn’t mean that the other guys are bad. It’s just that we have an advantage.”

The gloves are coming off in the battle between Dish Network and SoftBank for Sprint Nextel, the nation’s No. 3 wireless carrier.

In a letter submitted to the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing SoftBank’s $20 billion deal to acquire 70 percent of Sprint, Dish draws attention to a years-old investigation by the Justice Department into UTStarcom, a telecommunications equipment maker that was chaired by SoftBank’s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son.

UTStarcom allegedly paid for $7 million in trips for Chinese government officials with hopes of obtaining telecom sales contracts. The company paid $1.5 million to settle the investigation, which covered 2002 to 2007, without admitting guilt, according to a Politico report. Son was on the board of UTStarcom from 1995 to 2004, serving as chairman for all but the final year. Read more…

Dish Network has provided additional information about its proposed buyout of Sprint Nextel to the company’s special committee of board members. The committee, which is reviewing the offer on Sprint’s behalf, said last week that it had requested additional details about the proposal from Dish.

Douglas County-based Dish also confirmed Monday that it has received a non-disclosure agreement from Sprint. Japan’s SoftBank, which has an agreement to buy 70 percent of Sprint for $20 billion, amended the deal to allow the wireless carrier to enter into the non-disclosure agreement with Dish for “the purpose of clarifying and obtaining further information.” Read more…

Tamara Chuang covers personal technology and local tech news for The Denver Post. She previously spent 10 years doing the same thing for The Orange County Register before taking a hiatus to move here and become a SAHM to a precocious toddler.

Laura Keeney is a business reporter with The Denver Post, covering aerospace, aviation and biotech. Over the last two decades, she's covered everything from agribusiness to punk rock. Keeney holds an AACSB-accredited MBA from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY.